Dino, Giancarla, JoAnn and I Stayed in Florence today. We headed to the academy museum but the lines were outrageous and we had no reservations. We made reservations for tomorrow and headed over to the Duomo again where we went to their museum. We saw an unfinished work of Michelangelo and the restored original gold doors from the Batteseria.

Apparently Michelangelo did not like the quality of the marble and broke the leg off Jesus and gave up on it. It is still pretty amazing to look at as it gives an idea how the rock is chiseled to its final form. You can see the unfinished parts on the right figure and the finished parts on the face of the woman.

This is the original door to the Battiseria with bible scenes on each gold square.

After that, Dino got the idea we should hike up to the top of the Duomo and look at the city. We settled for the tower, which had a shorter line and took the 407 stairs to the top. This is a pretty tough hike for an old fat information worker, but I have photos to prove I made it.

It was an amazing view of the old downtown area of Florence.

Dino and Giancarla have left to go to work tomorrow. We have two days left in Florence before we move onto Venice. We will probably take it a bit easier for the last two days, but we do have an 08:30 meeting at the Academy museum tomorrow morning.

This is the tower we hiked from an earlier post:

It is the one to the right of the cathedral. You can see the square tower over the Batteseria.